Rhythm in their soles

Festival underscores surprisingly rich legacy of female tap dancers

August 03, 2005|By Lucia Mauro, Special to the Tribune

Tap dancing women? There have been plenty, you might be surprised to know.

With its muscular movements and hard-driving rhythms, tap dancing typically conjures up images of a fleet-footed Savion Glover, a virtuosic Gregory Hines, a silken-smooth Fred Astaire and an athletic Gene Kelly. But women also have left their footprints on the hardwood.

During the 1930s and '40s, the dance form's Golden Age, women were tapping out fascinating rhythms of their own. And today they're still in the movement's vanguard, teaching and dancing and taking tap in bold new directions.

This week's Chicago Human Rhythm Project--one of the country's largest tap and rhythmic dance festivals--will put plenty of female tap artists in the spotlight. During the festival's seven-day run at Northwestern University, women will teach master classes and headline several concerts.

From twentysomethings to octogenarians, these female artists represent a timeline of women in tap.

"Although they were carrying on the legacy of a lot of male tap dancers, women tap artists [over the decades] were creating legacies of their own," says Lane Alexander, the project's founder.

Performers such as Jeni LeGon, Libby Spencer, Frances Nealy, Doris Humphries, Dianne "Lady Di" Walker and Brenda Bufalino were pioneers in their day. And rather than imitate the virtuosity of their male counterparts, they combined elegance with a powerful physicality.

"Women seem to be more understated in their creativity," observes Julie Cartier, 45, artistic director of Especially Tap Chicago Dance Company. "Men tend to go for the incredible tricks. For a while, women tried to be like the men. But then they realized they had something men don't have. So they began to celebrate their femininity while holding their own with the guys."

Among the early female dancers was Chicagoan Doris Humphries, 80, who got into show business right out of high school. She and a partner formed a duo called the Manhattan Misses. They toured the country with Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan. Their style has been described as "ballet boogie," similar to the Nicholas Brothers, an acrobatic dancing duo who starred in numerous film musicals of the 1930s, '40s and '50s.

"I always enjoyed performing," says Humphries, who as a child made her own tap shoes by attaching bottle caps to her shoe soles. "But I made the decision to quit after I had children. I went into teaching, which has always been very rewarding for me.

"Not too long ago, I got a group of women together to form a senior tap group. And now I'm performing again."

Tap memories: "I've always been surrounded by a majority of female teachers. So I always felt supported in that aspect. But the time I spent in New York with the rhythm-tap scene and improvising with bands in clubs, I found I didn't have as fast or as loud chops as the men. I was dancing next to guys who could hit harder and faster. Instead of getting frustrated, I asked myself, `What can I bring that's unique?' I realized that I could focus on creating a more clever rhythm or using my body in a different way."

An art form you can do `any time in your life'

DORIS HUMPHRIES, 80

Performer and teacher

Tap resume: Shortly after high school she toured the country with Louis Jordan and other luminaries, including Sammy Davis Jr. She left the business to raise a family but continued to study tap, Latin, Afro-Cuban and ballroom in her native Chicago, where she still lives. She teaches dance at the South Shore Cultural Center.

Tap memories: "There were no barriers that I knew of as far as being a woman tap dancer. I had a more difficult time with the prejudice against black people. In terms of quitting the business to raise a family, that was a conscious choice I made. Tap is the kind of art form you can return to at any time in your life."

She's tapping her way through life's changes

DIANNE "LADY DI" WALKER, 54

Performer and teacher

Tap resume: Internationally acclaimed tap performer and teacher who has shared the stage with Gregory Hines, Steve Condos, Jimmy Slyde, and her mentor, Leon Collins. She appeared in the Tony Award-winning musical "Black and Blue" in New York and Paris. A Boston resident, she has performed in clubs and at numerous jazz and tap festivals and was one of Savion Glover's first instructors.